title: The willingness of community pharmacists to participate in a practice-based research network.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) are groups of practitioners and researchers with an interest in designing, evaluating and disseminating solutions to the real-world problems of clinical practices.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the level of interest of community pharmacists in participating in a PBRN and to document the services such a network should offer.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a survey of community pharmacists in Montreal, Quebec, and surrounding areas, a questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 1250 pharmacists. Two of the 28 questions were related to PBRNs: one assessed the pharmacists' interest in participating in a PBRN; the other sought their views on which services and activities this network should offer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 571 (45.7%) pharmacists completed the questionnaire, but 6 did not answer the questions about the PBRN. Of the respondents, 58.9% indicated they were "very interested" or "interested" in joining a PBRN, while 41.1% reported little or no interest. The most popular potential services identified were access to clinical tools developed in research projects (77.0%), access to continuing education training programs developed in research projects (75.9%), information about conferences on pharmacy practice research (64.1%) and participation in the development of new pharmaceutical practices (56.1%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that the level of interest that community pharmacists have in PBRNs is sufficient to further evaluate how such networks may optimize and facilitate pharmacy practice research. Can Pharm J 2013;146:47-54.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine (Hébert), Université de Montréal.
authors.forename: Joanie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hébert
authors.forename: Marie-Claude
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Laliberté
authors.forename: Djamal
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Berbiche
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Lyne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lalonde